Nigel Adkins believes the self-belief within his Hull City squad was key to the club remaining in the Championship.

City made sure of their place in the Championship next season with a 5-5 draw at Bristol City on Saturday and now approach the final two games of the season with the mind-set of trying to finish as high up the table as possible.

Having arrived at the club last December with the Tigers in a precarious position, Adkins says the way his team ignored the ‘doom and gloom’ and kept cool heads in the face of increased pressure was important.

“People can be negative with a lot of doom and gloom, that’s the nature of football, but it’s how you keep calm going through these situations and keep everyone focused,” said Adkins.

Read More

“I think we’ve done that very well. We came in back in December and you could see we had a lot of players out injured.

“We knew what we wanted to achieve and everyone has been working hard together. Staying up was the big thing. Sunderland, for example, have gone and got relegated again. That could so easily have happened to us.

“It’s not easy when you get relegated from the Premier League. I know from my experiences at Reading that a lot of things have to be restructured behind the scenes.”

With safety assured Adkins is already planning for next season and what he hopes will be a challenge at the other end of the table, with hopes of launching a promotion push.

The head coach is hopeful of sitting down with the club’s owners in the coming days to discuss rebuilding plans for this summer.

A significant overhaul is expected with a host of senior players out of contract, and it is with that in mind Adkins may turn to a number of his fringe players against Cardiff City and Brentford to provide further first team experience ahead of possible involvement come August.

The head coach has echoed the comments of striker Fraizer Campbell, however, and says that despite the release of the pressure from the threat of relegation, there is no celebrating within the camp.